The Vital Force Archive

Four written assignments collected by Donna McElhose: students describe emerging from bipolar isolation, easing fibromyalgia fatigue, practising anywhere after 2005 cancer surgery, and discussing Justin's Climb the Joyous Mountain chapter by chapter.

Kate Polk credits her T'ai Chi Chih practice with two reductions in her blood pressure medication, calmer recurring visions of a traumatic experience, and comfort during radiation for a skin cancer on her scalp.

A letter to future students from one of Donna McElhose's students, K. L., who began T'ai Chi Chih in 2005 after a breast cancer scare and urges beginners to persevere through the awkward first weeks.

Linda Jones teaches seated TCC to beginners and to chemotherapy patients who regained feeling in their fingertips, yet finds mental practice, with its complete weight shifts, the most powerful of all.

Carolyn Pogwist describes her post-accreditation difficulty putting T'ai Chi Chih into words, and how one-on-one work with a breast cancer survivor in radiation treatment taught her to teach beginners.

Mary Ann Benner found T'ai Chi Chih at the Mayo Clinic during her husband's three months of cancer treatment, then carried it home to Lorraine Lepine's church group and daily Zoom sessions through COVID-19.

Hannah Hedrick describes practising three times a week in her yoga shed during the pandemic, private sessions for students with cancer, energy work for a dying fellow organizer, and a Down Syndrome class cut short by lockdown.

Judy Chancey traces the fallow season that began with her husband Raymond's Stage 3 colon cancer and deepened with her sister Ankie's death, and the yinning and yanging that carried her into Zoom sessions for VA counselors and cancer care staff.

Jeneth Rundle planned a year off from teaching after moving to Oregon, then agreed to teach a neighbor recovering from cancer treatment, a stroke and surgery who progressed from seated practice to standing for a full hour.

Diana Bahn describes teaching Rocking Motion to chemotherapy patients with foot neuropathy at a Mt. Sinai cancer center, using Realization Process methods to locate the heel centers and Kidney 1 points.

Anna Vaith honors her student Karen, who cared for her husband through cancer, and recounts how grief over her grandmother's sudden death led her to accreditation in 2005 and to teaching.

Nancy Jo Bleier recounts how a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery in Seattle led her back to a T'ai Chi Chih practice she had nearly abandoned, and to plans to teach again.

Diana Bahn writes about her sister-in-law Sarah's suicide, the scorched-field grief that followed, and how returning to the t'an t'ien and Justin's prajna led her to teach at a Mount Sinai cancer center.

Sandra Babka, at 76 and living with nerve damage, recounts a lifetime of exercise and practicing TCC in airports and doctors' offices, paired with an anonymous student's account of letting go through Abandon Hope and a cancer diagnosis.

Sue Bitney buys a "Year of Thankfulness" calendar and recalls Justin's encouragement to live in gratitude, tracing her husband Jim's cancer surgery, his death three months later, and her new direction.

Sr. Agnes Fleming, certified since 1992, recounts teaching in retreat houses, stepping back after cancer, and keeping a daily practice at her east-facing convent window with the dawn and birdsong.

Sue Bitney recounts the five months between her husband's cancer diagnosis and his death, the four years of surviving since, and her decision to retire in March as a deliberate act of letting go.

Linda Braga remembers Mini, a retired library worker who joined her class as a beginner, kept practising through chemotherapy for a rare blood cancer, and was honoured in a memorial class where students sensed spirits filling the room.

Stan Corwin opens a new column with a step-by-step way to teach the forward and back weight shift, then tells how a neighbor with multiple myeloma reached remission after taking up daily practice.

Hannah Hedrick traces how cancer prevention authority Sam Epstein moved from scientist's skepticism to nightly practice on an Italian terrace at nearly 90, after 25 years of exposure to TCC.

Pam Towne lays out what a T'ai Chi Chih retreat offers, two full practices a day, free time and lasting friendships, then recalls the 2006 Santa Barbara retreat where romance with Ted began.

Denise Emanuel Clemen recounts the divorce that wrecked her life in 2007, her skeptical first T'ai Chi Chih class at an Oxnard gym, and practicing in her living room after her partner Dan died of lung cancer in hospice care there.

Linda Braga recounts the 2011 virus that led to a suspected lung cancer diagnosis, and credits 25 years of TCC meditation for the serene mind she kept as scans, an oncologist and an unexplained shrinking mass followed.

Roseann Heinrich recounts the 18 months from her son Joe's brain tumor diagnosis in May 2012 to his death in October 2013, and the daily practice she did in hospital waiting rooms to find peace and courage.

Sue Bitney recounts the five months between her husband Jim's lung cancer diagnosis in October 2012 and his death in March 2013, and how practice, Sandy's seated DVD and a visit from Antonia sustained them both.

Sheryl Adair returns from visiting a friend facing another round of chemotherapy, and a Mark Nepo line about thinking sends her back to her daily T'ai Chi Chih; five Pyramid Poems follow.

Valerie Jennings began T'ai Chi Chih after a hysterectomy for cancer, practiced sitting and later in her hospital bed through congestive heart failure and a pacemaker, and sewed scarves showing the movements.

Kendelyn Beck credits nine years of continued T'ai Chi Chih practice, sometimes seated when her energy was low, through chemo, breast surgery and brain radiation for Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, with scans now showing no active disease.

Esther Matassarin-Jacobs recounts starting seated T'ai Chi Chih at a Cancer Wellness Center after chemotherapy left her feet numb and falling weekly, and standing to class applause after knee replacements.

Beth Preston traces her T'ai Chi Chih life in Washington from finishing classes with Patricia Strand to teaching at a community college, a YMCA, a free library practice, and a women's cancer support group.